We've been working on a new "Schedule Maximizer" tool at LineupExperts and wanted to share it as everyone starts preparing for the fantasy basketball season.

Most schedule tools tell you how many games each NBA team plays. That's useful, but 4 scheduled games aren't necessarily 4 usable games if they fall on crowded nights when your active lineup is already full.

The Schedule Maximizer compares NBA schedules against the players you select. Before your draft, use it to research how potential picks could fit together. During your draft, see which teams and players best complement the roster you're building. If you've already drafted, analyze your actual roster to identify free agents and other players whose schedules could improve your lineup - including looking ahead to your fantasy playoffs.

With an incomplete lineup, the tool finds Schedule Partners - teams that provide more Open Nights and favorable Off-Nights alongside your selected players. Once your active lineup is fillable, it analyzes Schedule Fit, accounting for roster structure, position eligibility and schedule conflicts to estimate how much of each team's schedule you can actually use.

Everything is completely free. You can build a lineup and research players manually without an account, or create a free account and sync unlimited leagues for free. Syncing automatically imports your league settings and, once you've drafted, your roster as well. Player recommendations are then customized to your league settings and available players.

We'd love any feedback on the new tool - whether you find it helpful, have ideas for improvements, or think there are other schedule factors we should consider.

https://www.lineupexperts.com/basketball/schedule-maximizer

Full disclosure: This is our site - we're the team behind LineupExperts.

Good luck with your drafts and the season ahead!

We all got that one guy.

Doesn’t matter what the stats say, you just think he’s cool, so he ends up going way higher than he should on your board.

Who’s yours?

I’m still working through my 2026/27 FanScout projections, and after looking at the Western Conference, these are five players I keep coming back to.

I’d split them into 3 breakout candidates who could matter in standard leagues and 2 deep sleepers whose value could explode later in the season.

Breakout candidates

Dylan Harper

Anyone who watched the playoffs probably saw why I’m so high on him.

When De’Aaron Fox was out in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, Harper started and put up 24 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists and 7 steals in 47 minutes. That’s obviously an extreme example, but the talent is very real.

He’s a big, left-handed creator with that Harden-like ability to get defenders on his hip and play at his own pace. He averaged only around 20-something minutes for stretches last season, and I simply don’t think that continues.

I’m projecting 28-30 MPG, with clear 30+ upside whenever Fox misses time. San Antonio also has little reason to overload Fox during the regular season.

Ace Bailey

Bailey already averaged 13.8 points in 27.6 minutes as a 19-year-old rookie, and the defensive numbers are what make him especially interesting for category leagues: 0.9 steals and 0.9 blocks for the last 3 months.

The scoring talent is obvious. He’s comfortable creating in the mid-range instead of relying entirely on threes and rim attempts, which gives him more ways to score when defenses take something away.

The next jump I’m watching is stocks + free throws. If he gets above 1 steal and 1 block, while also getting to the line more often as a second-year player, his fantasy profile becomes much more complete.

Jaden McDaniels

Probably the least exciting name here — which is exactly why I think he could end up being good value.

He played all 82 games in 2024/25 and another 73 last season, while his 2025/26 per-36 line jumped to 16.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.1 blocks.

He’s entering his age-26 season, his minutes are extremely secure, and Minnesota now has LaMelo Ball creating offense alongside him. Any missed time from LaMelo should only increase McDaniels’ offensive involvement.

My projection is aggressive: top 40 in total value this season.

Deep sleepers

Isaiah Jackson

This one is mostly about where the Clippers are heading.

LA acquired Jackson alongside Bennedict Mathurin and significant draft capital in the Zubac trade. Mathurin has already moved on, while Jackson remains on the roster.

He enters the season behind 38-year-old Brook Lopez, and the Clippers don't exactly look like a team built around maximizing short-term regular-season wins.

Jackson has always been a strong per-minute fantasy producer because of his rebounding, FG% and especially blocks. My prediction: he takes the starting center job sometime around December. If that happens, he won't stay on waivers for long.

Maxime Raynaud

This is almost entirely a bet on Sacramento eventually moving Sabonis.

Raynaud already showed what the opportunity can look like. In March he averaged 17.9 points and 8.5 rebounds in 33 minutes while shooting 59.5%, followed by 17.7/9.5 on 62.1% shooting in April.

He finished his rookie season at 12.5 points and 7.5 rebounds on 57.1% FG, and when Sabonis was unavailable there were multiple 20-point/double-double type performances.

With Sabonis healthy, Raynaud isn't someone I'm drafting aggressively.

But Sacramento looks increasingly like a rebuilding situation, and there is already speculation that Sabonis could be moved during the season.

If that happens, I think Raynaud can once again produce around top-80 fantasy value over the final months, with excellent percentages.

Who’s your favorite Western Conference breakout candidate this year — and which player do you think is one trade or injury away from becoming a must-roster fantasy player?

My friend group might only have 8 players this year. Was wondering some ideas to still make the league competitive so it's not just super stacked allstar teams and there will actually be lower draft strategy.

One idea was to just expand team roster size/starting positions but that would dilute the impact of players lower in the draft.

Another idea was to implement a maximum weekly games played so the quality of your starts matter but I'm unsure if that's an option in Yahoo and it would also just favor the top heavy.

Any other ideas?

Hi everyone, I'm a commissioner looking to transition our league to a dynasty – starting with just 1 keeper for now – but I'm a bit confused by the season-related terminology ESPN uses...

We want to fully re-draft heading into this 2026-27 season so that we can choose keepers based on those rosters, such that the first draft/season with keepers in play would be 2027-28. Here are my league settings right now:

• Use keepers for 2027 season = No
• Use keepers for 2028 season = Yes

Is this correct? My assumption is that "starting" with the 2028 season must refer to 2027-28, but it's not entirely clear to me what "use keepers" is even referring exactly; is it merely the existence of keeper selection during the season or is it also keepers during the draft? Thank you for any insight and sorry if this is a dumb, overly-cautious question!

Going into a Dynasty league with 4 keepers (Bam, Cade are a lock), but i'm having a bit of a time choosing between Jalen Williams, Kyshawn George and James Harden). I'm sure I can get James if I really want to in earlier rounds of the draft, but Jalen Williams became a surprising injury liability. I'm very very high on Kyshawn George's ceiling (Gotta support the DMV), but unless he's the 6th man it might get crowded and his growth stunted.

I feel like I could really go either way but just wanted to throw it out there. I do also have Kyrie, Kessler I could have considered but I thought that was a bit of a stretch).

Dan Besbris identifies several players, such as Keegan Murray, Ausar Thompson, and others, who could see a resurgence in their fantasy value this coming season.

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Trying to decide who will take my last keeper spot and it's between Ware and Queen. Who will have the better season? Ware will have a nice change of scenery in MIL but would be competing with Turner for C minutes. DQ had some nice performances last season but significantly more duds- will he be more consistent in his Sophomore season? I think he has a lot less competition in the C position in NO. Who would you guys go with?

I've never been involved in one and now I'm setting one up. How much time should be allotted for a 240 player draft?